Searches Upheld In Abuse Inquiries

March 14, 1985|By William B. Crawford Jr.

A federal judge refused a request Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union that would have barred state investigators from conducting nude searches of alleged child abuse victims in their homes without their parents` consent.

U.S. District Judge John A. Nordberg ruled that guidelines allowing Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigators to conduct nude examinations did not violate constitutional bars against unreasonable searches.

Nordberg also ruled that the guidelines permitted department investigators to conduct limited searches of the homes of suspected child abuse victims without consent of parents or a search warrant.

Illinois ACLU Director Harvey Grossman and attorney Allan Lapidus, who prosecuted the case, said they were considering an appeal of Nordberg`s opinion.

If the department were forced to first obtain probable cause or a search warrant, ``it is likely that some child abuse would go undetected and some innocent lives unprotected,`` Nordberg said in his opinion in the suit, filed by the ACLU in 1983.

Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan applauded the decision by Nordberg, saying, ``If the ACLU position were upheld by the court, it would have shut down the state mechanism for investigating child abuse cases.``

The ACLU suit was filed on behalf of several parents and children who were the subject of child abuse investigations. The ACLU charged that department investigators subjected children to unreasonable nude inspections, including genital examinations.

It also charged that the homes of the children`s parents were searched without warrants and that department investigators launched child abuse investigations largely on anonymous tips phoned in on a department child abuse hot line.

The ACLU sought a ruling from Nordberg that would have allowed such searches only when probable cause of wrongdoing had been established and only by medical personnel.